Why would a small "bead" of mercury appear in the bowl of my toilet?

[The Composer]

Occasionally we have noticed a small bead of mercury in the bowl of one of our toilets. It's only in one specific toilet, not in the others. We don't have any bowl cleaners, etc., in the tank or the bowl, so I can't figure out why it's there.

Any ideas?

[GaryM]

How do you know that it's Mercury? Any broken thermometers around?

[The Composer]

How do you know that it's Mercury? Any broken thermometers around?

Well, I don't know for sure that it's Mercury, but it sure behaves like Mercury...breaking into smaller beads, fusing together, etc.

And, nope, no broken thermometers.

We've noticed the mystery beads for about 6 months.

[Zsofia]

Eat anything.... unusual lately?

[Krokodil]

Is it always the same size? Could it be the same bead over and over?

[Sofis]

Unless anyone's removed it, it is the same bead of mercury each time, and it is there presumably because someone put it there.

[The Composer]

Is it always the same size? Could it be the same bead over and over?

The beads are most always similar in size. I fished one of them out, so I guess there would have to be at least two. :D

[psychonaut]

Is anyone in the house eating mercury? I believe it passes through the digestive tract unaltered. Perhaps someone in your house has pica and is snacking on thermometers.

Come to think of it, are you sure it's mercury? Have you actually fished it out and verified that it's a liquid metal?

[The Composer]

Is anyone in the house eating mercury? I believe it passes through the digestive tract unaltered. Perhaps someone in your house has pica and is snacking on thermometers.

Come to think of it, are you sure it's mercury? Have you actually fished it out and verified that it's a liquid metal?

Pretty sure no one is eating Mercury.

I attempted to fish out one bead but couldn't get it out, so I just flushed. It disappeared down the drain and didn't come back. At the appearance of the next bead a few weeks later, I took a lot of time to fish out the bead and played around with it. It behaved as Mercury from a broken thermometer would behave. I could separate it, but individual pieces would fuse if they came into contact with one another. It was very silvery and slippery and hard to get out of the toilet because it would sort of flatten in the water when I was trying to capture it. However, as soon as it was out, it was spherical again.

We don't have any Mercury thermometers, so I can't blame it on the kids breaking a thermometer and trying to flush it.

[The Composer]

The bead (I've only seen one at a time in the toilet) looks very similar to the Mercury in the photo on this page (http://skynewswire.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9194).

[Philster]

Some solder used in making plumbing joints looks like mercury in water.

[Sunspace]

This is the weirdest thing I've read on the Dope for some time. It's almost an SCP (http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/about-the-scp-organization)-level anomaly.

Have you checked in the tank? Perhaps there's a small pool of mercury at the absolute bottom, which manages to send a few tiny droplets though the valve every time you flush, and they gradually build up into something visible?

Other than that, I dunno. Maybe it's aliens. From Uranus.

[Harmonious Discord]

What is the age of the house? You never know what some home owner tried when mercury was easily available.

[Philster]

Do you have well water and live on or near farm land or land that was farmed???

It could actually be mercury and it might just make it to one toilet based on the physical layout of the plumbing in your home.

[The Composer]

What is the age of the house? You never know what some home owner tried when mercury was easily available.

The house is only about 15 years old, but an MD was one of the previous owners. I can see where he might have experimented. We've been in the house about 2 years.

Sunspace: :D

Philster: Nope, no well water. All county/city. I have thought about sending a sample to the health department and/or calling the water authority, though, to find out whether or not other homeowners in our subdivision or area have experienced anything similar.

[WarmNPrickly]

Is the toilet that it appears in low in the basement or first floor?

You should certainly have your water tested. Long term low level mercury exposure is not good.

[The Composer]

Is the toilet that it appears in low in the basement or first floor?

You should certainly have your water tested. Long term low level mercury exposure is not good.

This toilet is in the hallway/guest bathroom on the main floor. The toilet in the master bath on the same floor, the two upstairs toilets nor the basement toilet have ever had any mystery beads.

[Philster]

This is the weirdest thing I've read on the Dope for some time. It's almost an SCP (http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/about-the-scp-organization)-level anomaly.

Have you checked in the tank? Perhaps there's a small pool of mercury at the absolute bottom, which manages to send a few tiny droplets though the valve every time you flush, and they gradually build up into something visible?

Other than that, I dunno. Maybe it's aliens. From Uranus.

Wouldn't they be from Mercury and trying to get to Uranus?

[corkboard]

Other than that, I dunno. Maybe it's aliens. From Uranus.

Winner.

[Sunspace]

Wouldn't they be from Mercury and trying to get to Uranus?Good thing they're not pole vaulters, then.

[The Composer]

Wouldn't they be from Mercury and trying to get to Uranus?

Neptune has to be a part of this somehow...I'm just not witty enough right now to make it work.

[Chief Pedant]

Occasionally we have noticed a small bead of mercury in the bowl of one of our toilets. It's only in one specific toilet, not in the others. We don't have any bowl cleaners, etc., in the tank or the bowl, so I can't figure out why it's there.

Any ideas?

1. Someone dumped mercury in the tank.
2. One of the urchins or a friend has a supply and is occasionally flushing it away. Not all of it goes dow because it's heavy.

Keep this story to yourself. While elemental mercury is not toxic, if the wrong pranoid yuppie mom finds out about it you will be a Superfund site and your toxic home shunned.

[TroutMan]

...It behaved as Mercury from a broken thermometer would behave. I could separate it, but individual pieces would fuse if they came into contact with one another. It was very silvery and slippery and hard to get out of the toilet because it would sort of flatten in the water when I was trying to capture it.

Call Ah-nold. Sounds like you have a 2nd generation Terminator.

[The Composer]

1. Someone dumped mercury in the tank.
2. One of the urchins or a friend has a supply and is occasionally flushing it away. Not all of it goes dow because it's heavy.

Keep this story to yourself. While elemental mercury is not toxic, if the wrong pranoid yuppie mom finds out about it you will be a Superfund site and your toxic home shunned.

I haven't been able to find anything unusual in the tank.

And my kids are 8 and under, so I don't think they are the culprits. ;)

TroutMan: That's kinda scary...maybe that explains the weird noises we've heard occasionally...

[Textual Intercourse]

Have you tried shooting it?

I'm almost certain that it would be satisfying to tell your mercury to eat lead.

If shooting it doesn't work, shoot it again.

[Sunspace]

Have you tried shooting it?

I'm almost certain that it would be satisfying to tell your mercury to eat lead.

If shooting it doesn't work, shoot it again.Use silver bullets. Then you can fill cavities with the results.

[janeslogin]

Remove a bead next time, put it on penny, rub it onto the penny and see if it sticks to the copper.

I loved to play with the stuff as a kid. Back then thermometers and thermostats were the best places to collect metallic mercury unless one could steal it from a science lab. Now I am quite old and rather grouchy but other than that I don't know of any ill effects the stuff had on me.

[TroutMan]

Remove a bead next time, put it on penny, rub it onto the penny and see if it sticks to the copper.

I loved to play with the stuff as a kid. Back then thermometers and thermostats were the best places to collect metallic mercury unless one could steal it from a science lab. Now I am quite old and rather grouchy but other than that I don't know of any ill effects the stuff had on me.

I crossed the road yesterday without looking and I survived, but I wouldn't extrapolate from one event to say that doing so is safe. There are plenty of proven dangers from mercury. Don't play with it and make sure you dispose of it properly.

[Manduck]

I crossed the road yesterday without looking and I survived, but I wouldn't extrapolate from one event to say that doing so is safe. There are plenty of proven dangers from mercury. Don't play with it and make sure you dispose of it properly.

Good advice. I've been disposing of mine in The Composer's toilet.

[Amblydoper]

My mother once broke an old thermometer in the bathroom, and occasionally, a small metallic looking bead would appear at the bottom of the toilet. I bet some one broke a thermometer near your toilet at some point in your home's history.

[johnpost]

elemental mercury is dangerous as a vapor. so at moderate temperatures it might only be dangerous for long term exposures. ingestion of elemental mercury is not serious, runs right through. skin contact is not serious danger.

mercury compounds can be toxic if ingested.

it will stick to powered zinc, sulfur or activated charcoal for cleanup.

not a plaything. it can become dangerous if uncontained and then might form very toxic compounds. hazardous waste pickup and dropoff programs are the best way to dispose of.

[WarmNPrickly]

You could install a new toilet and see if it goes away. You may even find the source taking out the toilet. As it is, it doesn't sound unsafe, but it could freak a few people out. IMO, the real issue would be if the mercury were not localized to beads at the bottom of your toilet. You need to be certain that this is not getting into your drinking water.

Elemental mercury may have a low toxicity, but it oxidizes easily enough that it's dangerous. Nine out of ten kids that played with mercury are just fine. (Yes, that's a made up statistic.)

[Isamu]

Have you tried shooting it?

I'm almost certain that it would be satisfying to tell your mercury to eat lead.

If shooting it doesn't work, shoot it again.

Fire a warning shot first, just to let it know you're serious.

[DrDeth]

It will destroy gold jewelry, so don't let it touch your wedding band.

[valleyofthedolls]

According to Wikipedia, mercury is used in float valves:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(element)

Maybe check the float valve in your toilet and see if it's leaking?

[needscoffee]

According to Wikipedia, mercury is used in float valves:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(element)

Maybe check the float valve in your toilet and see if it's leaking?A float valve in a toilet is a balloon-type ballcock. It's not a mercury-containing float valve.

[Hirka T'Bawa]

Not all of it goes dow because it's heavy.


Would Mercury float? I don't know enough about the element, but since Hg has a molecular weight of 80, while H2O has a molecular weight of 10, I would assume that Hg in the molecular form would sink, and then be flushed with the rest of the water.

However, my only experience with elemental Hg is in broken thermometers in a drawer, I don't know what its interaction with H2O is in real life.

[astro]

Would Mercury float? I don't know enough about the element, but since Hg has a molecular weight of 80, while H2O has a molecular weight of 10, I would assume that Hg in the molecular form would sink, and then be flushed with the rest of the water.

However, my only experience with elemental Hg is in broken thermometers in a drawer, I don't know what its interaction with H2O is in real life.

This. You guys think mercury is FLOATING on water? :dubious:

[Quercus]

Would Mercury float? I don't know enough about the element, but since Hg has a molecular weight of 80, while H2O has a molecular weight of 10, I would assume that Hg in the molecular form would sink, and then be flushed with the rest of the water.Actually I think the issue is that mercury is so much heavier that water that it might stay on the bottom of the bowl, and not get carried out when the water flushes.

Really weird why mercury might be in the toilet bowl. I'd check it to make sure next time (hopefully using a penny rather than your wedding ring). If it really is, then I'd suggest a) if the toilet tank is separate from the bowl, take it off and inspect things; and b) look again around the house to make sure nobody is playing with/eating a broken thermometer or something. Eight is certainly old enough to play with it, and below that toddlers do like to stick things in their mouths..

[WarmNPrickly]

A float valve in a toilet is a balloon-type ballcock. It's not a mercury-containing float valve.

I'm going to make a really WAG and say that mercury is not used in the floating portion of the valve mechanism. Wikipedia does indicate that mercury is used in float valves though I can't find a different source. I've no idea if mercury is used in toilet float valves or not, but it would neatly solve the mystery.

[beowulff]

I'm going to make a really WAG and say that mercury is not used in the floating portion of the valve mechanism. Wikipedia does indicate that mercury is used in float valves though I can't find a different source. I've no idea if mercury is used in toilet float valves or not, but it would neatly solve the mystery.

Mercury may have been used in Electrical float valves, but never in toilet float valves.

[WarmNPrickly]

That makes sense. I couldn't think of how it would be used in toilet float valves, which is why I looked so hard for design that contained one. It would have been a really cool solution to the problem.

[WarmNPrickly]

In any case, the OP should replace the toilet. It's not that expensive or difficult. If the Mercury comes back, then you've got a problem.

[yabob]

Although I doubt it, perhaps the toilet was equipped with one of these at some point:

http://www.ikecoalition.org/Mercury/hg_toilet_nightlight.htm

(Some guy came up with the bright idea of making a nightlight that came on when the toilet lid was up. Unfortunately, he ran afoul of EPA rules by using a mercury switch in the thing.)

This simplest explanation has already been stated. Somebody previously disposed of a small amount of mercury in an improper manner. If you poke around, such reports are not unheard of. It's a good point that the dense bead of mercury may just roll out of sight when you flush, only to reappear eventually. In which case, maybe you've solved the problem by fishing it out.

[Philster]

So, The Composer, you don't have a septic tank either?

[The Composer]

So, The Composer, you don't have a septic tank either?

I do have a septic tank. Two, in fact: one tank for the main floor and the second floor and another tank for the basement. Not sure why they did that, other than capacity. Our plat shows two tanks and I know there have been no repairs or replacements according to the health department.

[WarmNPrickly]

If you have a septic tank, you should change your toilet yesterday. A small amount of mercury might not be a big problem, but if this has been going on for months who knows how much mercury has gotten into your leach field. Your leach field could be a superfund site.

[Philster]

Float control switches containing mercury can be found in some septic tanks, pumps and sump pumps.

[Philster]

I do have a septic tank. Two, in fact: one tank for the main floor and the second floor and another tank for the basement. Not sure why they did that, other than capacity. Our plat shows two tanks and I know there have been no repairs or replacements according to the health department.

I have two leading theories.

First, someone dumped mercury into the toilet. It tends to settle at the bottom of pipes, and it is hard to remove. The agitation from the toilet and other hydraulic action is freeing up a tiny bit at a time. Dentists have pipes that have mercury settled on the bottom, in traps and various low points. If mercury was dumped, it didn't go shooting out the house plumbing all at once. It migrates slowly, get disturbed, etc, but isn't just flushed straight on out.

The other theory is that you have a tiny leak in a float somewhere. I don't know enough about your septic setup, but you have two tanks. It is possible one of the floats (or both) is leaking and mercury is being siphoned back towards the home plumbing. Not entirely out of the question. You might have a sump pump with a mercury leak. The sump water, if pumped into the house plumbing (not bright, but it has been done), might contain tiny am'ts of mercury from a float leak, and it could be too close to the toilet in question. Plus, a sump pump can pump an awful lot of water, possibly causing some to go back towards a fixture if the drain pipe is overwhelmed. Send in hundreds of gallons of sump water from a sump wherein the pump float has a leak, and it goes into a drain pipe that isn't designed for that, and some water goes left/right towards the house fixtures and some goes left/right towards the street.

There aren't a whole bunch of other sources of mercury in the home: Silent wall switches, thermostats, thermometers, fluorescent bulbs, and maybe a couple of other ones that contain no more than a bulb would.

[rainy]

I do have a septic tank. Two, in fact: one tank for the main floor and the second floor and another tank for the basement. Not sure why they did that, other than capacity. Our plat shows two tanks and I know there have been no repairs or replacements according to the health department.


Water doesn't run uphill, so the basement is presumable lower than the field servicing the main two floors' septic tank. The basement might have been finished later and they choose to install a second tank instead of a pump up to the original tank. Or the main tank's field might not have been large enough to accept the volume of the additional basement bathrooms and thus a second tank and field would have been necessary. There might be an alarm float in one or both of the tanks and...

...or, what Philster just said.

[The Composer]

Hmm. We don't have a sump pump, so, my guess is that a previous owner "disposed" of the Mercury from a broken thermometer by attempting to flush it down the toilet. I've put in a call to a health inspector from the health department, so I'll keep you posted on what they find out.

Hopefully it's not something that will require a lot of cleanup and/or septic system repair. That's quite scary even to think about right now. However, it's probably time for the tanks to be pumped, but that still won't tell me where the Mercury originates.

[unclelem]

The house is only about 15 years old, but an MD was one of the previous owners. ... We've been in the house about 2 years.


You also mention that there is an upstairs.

What's *above* the toilet?
Do you keep the lid down?

Any chance someone broke a thermometer (or some other mercury-filled piece of equipment) upstairs at some point in the past, and the mercury has only now migrated through the intervening floor/ceiling to be dripping down into your toilet bowl?

[The Composer]

You also mention that there is an upstairs.

What's *above* the toilet?
Do you keep the lid down?

Any chance someone broke a thermometer (or some other mercury-filled piece of equipment) upstairs at some point in the past, and the mercury has only now migrated through the intervening floor/ceiling to be dripping down into your toilet bowl?

There is a bathroom above this bathroom, so I guess it's possible something could have been dumped there and it has settled. I haven't checked the tank for that toilet, but I haven't noticed anything in its bowl.

[unclelem]

There is a bathroom above this bathroom, so I guess it's possible something could have been dumped there and it has settled. I haven't checked the tank for that toilet, but I haven't noticed anything in its bowl.

I wouldn't expect anything in the bowl upstairs.

Most likely someone dropped a thermometer on the floor of the room above and the mercury skittered into cracks in the floor, under the molding, etc, and settled into the subfloor.

Inspect the ceiling above the toilet where you *are* finding the mercury and look for any new cracks, pinholes, or discolorations...

[Bewildebeest]

Does the pressure regulator for heating gas contain mercury? Can't imagine how it would have gotten into the toilet though.

[needscoffee]

NVM

[kayaker]

Could this be a miraculous event? The God Mercury (or Hermes, his counterpart) could be showing himself to you. I believe there is precedence in the christian religion where a goddess named "Mary" will show herself.

Mercury is messenger of the gods and a god of trade, particularly of the grain trade. Hermes protects and takes care of all the travelers, miscreants, harlots, old crones and thieves that pray to him or cross his path. He is athletic and is always looking out for runners, or any athletes with injuries who need his help.

Does this help? Maybe you should kneel down before your toilet and pray on this.

[bbeaty]

And my kids are 8 and under, so I don't think they are the culprits. ;)


At age 8, *I* certainly would have been the culprit! I might never have found out about mercury thermometers myself. But neighbor kids might have. Bored groups of kids playing with mercury at some point, then dumping it in the toilet after hearing that adults freak out about it.